Dataset Information

An agent-based model of income inequalities in diet in the context of residential segregation.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Low dietary quality is a key contributor to obesity and related illnesses, and lower income is generally associated with worse dietary profiles. The unequal geographic distribution of healthy food resources could be a key contributor to income disparities in dietary profiles.

Purpose

To explore the role that economic segregation can have in creating income differences in healthy eating and to explore policy levers that may be appropriate for countering income disparities in diet.

Methods

A simple agent-based model was used to identify segregation patterns that generate income disparities in diet. The capacity for household food preferences and relative pricing of healthy foods to overcome or exacerbate the differential was explored.

Results

Absent other factors, income differentials in diet resulted from the segregation of high-income households and healthy food stores from low-income households and unhealthy food stores. When both income groups shared a preference for healthy foods, low-income diets improved but a disparity remained. Both favorable preferences and relatively cheap healthy foods were necessary to overcome the differential generated by segregation.

Conclusions

The model underscores the challenges of fostering favorable behavior change when people and resources are residentially segregated and behaviors are motivated or constrained by multiple factors. Simulation modeling can be a useful tool for proposing and testing policies or interventions that will ultimately be implemented in a complex system where the consequences of multidimensional interactions are difficult to predict.

SUBMITTER: Auchincloss AH

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3625685 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

An agent-based model of income inequalities in diet in the context of residential segregation.

Auchincloss Amy H AH Riolo Rick L RL Brown Daniel G DG Cook Jeremy J Diez Roux Ana V AV

American journal of preventive medicine 20110301 3

<h4>Background</h4>Low dietary quality is a key contributor to obesity and related illnesses, and lower income is generally associated with worse dietary profiles. The unequal geographic distribution of healthy food resources could be a key contributor to income disparities in dietary profiles.<h4>Purpose</h4>To explore the role that economic segregation can have in creating income differences in healthy eating and to explore policy levers that may be appropriate for countering income disparitie ...[more]

PMID: 21335261

Similar Datasets

Project description:BackgroundExisting studies in Tanzania, based mostly on rural samples, have primarily focused on individual behaviors responsible for the lower utilization of maternal health care. Relatively less attention had been paid to inequalities in structural circumstances that contribute to reduced utilization of maternal health care. More importantly, scholarship concerning the impact of the rural-urban divide on socioeconomic disparities in the utilization of maternal health care is virtually nonexistent in Tanzania.MethodsDrawing from the Demographic Health Survey (2015-2016) conducted in Tanzania, our study includes a total of 3,595 women aged between 15-49 years old, who had given birth in five years before the month of the interview and living in both rural and urban Tanzania. The maternal health care utilization was assessed by four variables (i.e., antenatal care, skilled delivery assistance, the before and after discharging postnatal care). The independent variables were wealth, education, residence, parity, occupation, age, and the head of the household's sex. We used bivariate statistics and logistic regression to examine the rural-urban differences in the influence of education and wealth on maternal health care utilization.ResultsSignificantly lower use of maternal health care in rural than urban areas demonstrated a stark rural-urban divide in Tanzania. We documented socioeconomic inequalities in maternal health care utilization in the form of lower odds of the utilization of such services among women with lower levels of education and household wealth. The educational inequalities in the utilization of skilled delivery assistance (or = 0.37, 95% CI: 0.16, 0.86; p = 0.021) and (before discharge) postnatal care (or = 0.60, 95% CI: 0.38, 0.95; p = 0.030) were significantly wider in rural than urban areas. The differences in the odds of the utilization of skilled delivery assistance between women in poorer wealth quintile and women in richer household wealth quintile were also significantly wider in rural areas than in urban areas. However, the statistically significant rural-urban divides in the impacts of socioeconomic status on antenatal care and (after discharge) postnatal care were not observed.ConclusionThis study establishes the need for consideration of the rural-urban context in the formulation of policies to reduce disparities in maternal health care utilization in Tanzania.

Dataset Information

An agent-based model of income inequalities in diet in the context of residential segregation.

Background

Purpose

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Publications

An agent-based model of income inequalities in diet in the context of residential segregation.

Similar Datasets

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